Nathan Bashaw
Building a new kind of electronic book. Previously helped build General Assembly and ProductHunt!
Discussion
M
Nathan Bashaw
@nbashaw · Co-founder and CEO of Hardbound
I've gotta admit, this is a little surreal for me.
Two years ago, I built this little app over Thanksgiving break with my friend Ryan, and it's turned into something more amazing than I ever could have imagined. (I wrote a little more about how that went here). Since then, Ryan and the whole PH team have done an incredible job growing this community and building a powerful platform to support it. I'm damn proud to have played a small part in the early days.
The thing is, it was never really my plan to work on Product Hunt. Just a super happy/lucky accident. I've always been interested in books and reading, and wanted to build something in that space. For example, here's an embarrassing blog post I wrote when I was in college and none of my book startups ideas were working.
So, this summer I left my job at General Assembly (where I learned a ton and built stuff I am proud of, especially Dash) and set out to try and make a new kind of electronic book. One that doesn't feel like a digital copy of a paper thing, but actually is designed for your phone. The goal isn't just to make reading better on a phone, it's to give us the superpower of absorbing information more efficiently and becoming better humans. We're just getting started.
Anyway, I'm incredibly pumped to be here with you right now. It's surreal.
Edit: ok, gotta run now! I'll answer any remaining questions later tonight. This has been awesome, thank you all for the great questions!
upvotesharetweet・
Blake Robbins
@blakeir · VC at Ludlow Ventures
Hey Nathan! I've had the honor of working closely with you over the past few years and have seen your amazing work ethic first-hand. I'm just curious, what tips and advice do you have to aspiring product people? You come from a non-technical background, so I've always been extremely inspired by your ability to hack beautiful products/services together.
M
Nathan Bashaw
@nbashaw · Co-founder and CEO of Hardbound
@blakeir Thanks so much, Blake :) My biggest piece of advice for getting more technical would be to not limit yourself by thinking "I'm not a coder". You can learn to hack simple things just as easily as you can learn to play guitar. I think too many people make it a matter of identity that you either ARE a coder or you ARE something else. Don't think about what you are. Just do cool shit :)
My overall advice? Get in an environment where you can learn and where you are supported and given a lot of freedom. Build a ton of side projects. Find mentors and champions that are going to support you no matter what. It's all stuff I'm sure we've heard before :) Easy to nod your head to, hard to actually do.
Brian Donohue
@bthdonohue · CEO, Instapaper
Hi Nathan,
Would you rather fight 1 horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?
Thanks,
Brian
M
Nathan Bashaw
@nbashaw · Co-founder and CEO of Hardbound
@bthdonohue 1 horse-sized duck, duh
think david v goliath
Jordan Carlisle
@jordantcarlisle
@nbashaw - I bet most people don't know you're from Arkansas. There are many famous technologists from Arkansas - Dan Fredinburg, Brad Feld, Taylor Otwell, Charles Morgan, Christian Rudder, John Allison, you - and a few infamous technologists - Jed McCaleb, Weev, Cody Wilson. Despite public perception, all or these people are innovators.
I'm someone who left Arkansas and came back to build a community and a startup. So, what major components of our larger communities, like Little Rock or NW AR, need to change in order to keep the folks building cool stuff here?
M
Nathan Bashaw
@nbashaw · Co-founder and CEO of Hardbound
@jordantcarlisle that's a great question, and I wish I had a better answer! Honestly, I don't know a ton about the Arkansas startup scene. I'd love to chat sometime so I can learn more!
That being said, I have spent a lot of time talkig to people in the Michigan startup community (that's where I went to college and first got into startups), and I imagine there are probably some similar challenges.
It's really tough. The key seems to be creating a few successful companies that support the ecosystem and produce/attract talented people, but when you're in Arkansas or Michigan and trying to build something new, it seems like the deck is stacked against you in some ways. So the first wave of founders tends to be the type of person who has spent time in SV or NY and come back home.
I guess the main advice I'd have for anyone in a smaller startup market is to focus on your company. It's easy to get distracted by doing a lot of community stuff, but ultimately the thing that will help your community the most is having another big success.
Jordan Carlisle
@jordantcarlisle
Thanks @nbashaw! Those are wise words I wholly agree with.
I know we conversed via twitter earlier this year, so I definitely think we're long overdue for a more in-depth chat. What's the best way for us to get that on the books?
M
Nathan Bashaw
@nbashaw · Co-founder and CEO of Hardbound
@jordantcarlisle yes! lets definitely chat soon
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Nathan! You're an avid reader. What's the book that's had the biggest impact on your life?
Bonus question: what's your favorite emoji? 💃
M
Nathan Bashaw
@nbashaw · Co-founder and CEO of Hardbound
@rrhoover Man that's a really hard question. I don't know if I could name just one. Ok, so this book isn't actually even that good of a book, but it probably had the biggest impact: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xe...
I read it for class, freshman year of college. At that point in time I thought I wanted to be philosophy professor or something like that, and I didn't have the greatest outlook on the world. Cyropaedia for some reason shook me up, and made me want to build valuable things, rather than just appear to be a really deep/smart guy. That, and Paul Graham's essays, are how I eventually got interested in startups. So even though the book is kinda boring, it probably was the one to have the biggest impact on my life.
Favorite emoji is obviously 😘
Geoffrey Weg
@geoffreyweg · Betaworks, TechStars, White House
Hey @nbashaw!
- What are some of your favorite books? (rumor has it you're quite the book junky)
- Which entrepreneurs and businesses do you admire? What are they doing right?
M
Nathan Bashaw
@nbashaw · Co-founder and CEO of Hardbound
@geoffreyweg I am very prepared for this moment! Here's a list of my favorites: https://docs.google.com/spreadsh...
I've never met any of these folks, but based on what they write, I really admire @ev @paulg @pmarca and @patrickc. I really appreciate people who seem thoughtful and earnest. There are a lot of people out there like that, but for some reason these stand out to me.
Larry
@larry_lawal
@nbashaw What was your inspiration for the "Bashaw Pane”, and have you seen the design choice successfully used in any other products?
M
Nathan Bashaw
@nbashaw · Co-founder and CEO of Hardbound
@larry_lawal I remember designing the first product hunt site, and really worrying that nobody would bother to read the comments or participate in the discussion. So I wanted to make it as easy as possible, and a page load felt too heavy. So the "bashaw pane" was basically just a way to lower the mental friction to check out the comments. As for other sites, I think lots do it well! No single one jumps out at me though.
Noah Buscher
@nhbschr · I take pictures.
As many know, you left Product Hunt after a short while to pursue another job... Do you ever look back and question your choice, considering PH's success?
M
Nathan Bashaw
@nbashaw · Co-founder and CEO of Hardbound
@nhbschr That's a great question - it's definitely been weird at times, but I haven't regretted it yet, and I don't think I will. Also, just to clarify, I was never full-time at Product Hunt. It was just a side project that I decided not to go full-time on.
Anyway, how does it feel? It's kinda like if you and your girlfriend amicably parted ways, and then she got super famous. You're extremely proud and happy for her, but it's also hard to move on when she's "around" all the time, if that makes sense, hahah.
I decided to leave because ultimately I knew working on Product Hunt would be a detour for me. My passion for a really long time has been in creating new forms of media to help people get absorbed in stories and ideas. I know that, no matter what else happens, even if the entire thing fails, I'll be proud of giving it a shot. It's a special feeling and I don't want to lose it. I can't say I feel the same way about Product Hunt, or honestly anything else.
External recognition feels good in the moment, but it's ultimately not satisfying.
Yoshi
@dnxx28 · Student
Hi Nathan! I'm Japanese Yoshi. I understand you made "https://dash.generalassemb.ly/pr..." . How long did take as development period? I want similar things too!
Jeff Needles
@jsneedles · BI @ Meerkat & Maker of Things
@nbashaw - Would you be excited to still be a part of PH? Also, what's your favorite board game?
M
Nathan Bashaw
@nbashaw · Co-founder and CEO of Hardbound
@jsneedles Am I excited about Product Hunt as a company and community? Absolutely. Is it a good fit for me at this stage in my life? Probably not. I get so much energy from working on Hardbound, it just feels really right. I can't imagine working on anything else right now, to be honest.
As for favorite board game, definitely Puerto Rico. Props to Brad Hargreaves for introducing that to me :) haha